DLNA to Support Direct Media Transfers

The DLNA standard has been in the industry for more than seven years now. Simply put, DLNA enables diverse electronic devices such as smartphones, notebooks, and gaming consoles to communicate wirelessly with one another. With it, you'd be able to stream content from a DLNA Media Server system to your PlayStation 3 for example. Recent HDTV models also exhibit DLNA features as well.

However, this wireless standard has a niggling requirement, and it has to do with the protocol's dependency on the network. In other words, you'll need to connect these DLNA systems to the router or gateway before any form of data sharing can take place. All this is about to change, however, for the networking alliance has recently added Wi-Fi Direct to its set of DLNA Interoperability Guidelines. What this means, essentially, is that it actually permits two Wi-Fi Direct devices to connect and transfer data to one another wirelessly.

Although direct wireless transfers are currently possible via existing technology such as Apple's AirPlay or Bluetooth, we are nonetheless happy to know that the DLNA standard has finally shed its reliance on the home network.